Reverse Culture Shock
October 26th, 2007
If you travel, or spend an extended period of time overseas, then there is a good chance that you might encounter reverse culture shock upon your return home. Reverse culture shock is a funny phenomenon and if you have not experienced it, can be difficult to explain. As a means to prepare students’ who have been abroad the University of Iowa’s International Programs website has this description, “Reverse culture shock basically consists of feeling out of place in your own country, or experiencing a sense of disorientation. While everything is familiar, you feel different. Even walking through the airport and hearing American English spoken can be a very surreal experience.” I can still remember leaving Papua New Guinea and American Samoa and arriving in the United States and everything seemed foreign to me. Specifically, from the way people greeted each other to how people passed others in a crowded grocery store aisle is tremendously different depending on where you are. Sometimes reverse culture shock can be extremely overwhelming and the University of Iowa site goes on to further explain that, “Fitting your new life into your old one can be frustrating. Since every country has a unique approach to life, it can be difficult if you’re used to operating within cultural mode, or have made that approach to life a part of you, to return to the U.S. where the rules are different.”